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‘Avatar’ Sequel Now Set For Christmas 2017 Release | Film News

Film auteur James Cameron (Aliens 1986, Titanic 1997) is currently working on, not one but three sequels to his cinematography masterpiece Avatar (2009). After many delays, a rough date has been given for the second installment of the franchise – Christmas 2017, with installments three and four for subsequent release at the same time in 2018 and 2019 respectively.

20th Century Fox chairman/CEO Jim Gianopulos has explained to investors in the project, he has confidence that the movie will be ready for this new date. Variety have quoted him saying, “Jim Cameron has his own pace”. Gianopulos went on to describe Cameron’s work room and office in New Zealand where the movies are being filmed: “It’s a room…which is covered floor to ceiling with images, characters, worlds, settings… It’s the most amazing, breathtaking thing you’ve ever seen. His challenge is to put all of that in a movie”.

Avatar holds the title for the highest grossing movie of all time, was massively expensive to make and was one of the first films to showcase the 3D movie going experience. The film is about an Earth like planet, man has discovered called Pandora, inhabited by beautiful, blue skinned and tail sporting humanoid creatures. The planet is a lush paradise that man (cast as the greedy, villainous species) aims to conquer with destructive and tragic results.

Gianopulos explained the day when Cameron pitched the idea to the studio: “There was that moment when Jim Cameron said 10-foot blue people with tails… In the first movie he created technology that was so far ahead of its time… Of course now he’s gone past that.. all the pieces are in place. The story is being finalized”.

Had another director pitched the movie that was a big risk with a $237 million production price tag, it may never have happened, but Cameron’s impressive genius cannot be argued with. He is known for his ambitious projects, difficult locations, social and political metaphors within his themes and above all, success at the box office. The Avatar franchise will be his most ambitious and astounding project in his career and from what we hear, a labor of real love.